Path 2

Path 2

DEATH OF A SALES MUSICAL

May 20, 2015

“It’s the sound of feet, pounding the street/The sound of knuckles on the door.” Always be closing, people. That’s the singing-and-dancing message behind Everything’s Coming Up Profits: The Wonderful World of Industrial Musicals, a fantastically designed book by Steve Young and Sport Murphy. The authors will be on hand tonight to introduce rare footage from Broadway-style extravaganzas like Mattelzapoppin!, The Bathrooms Are Coming, Songs to Sell By, and other over-the-top convention merriment from the 1950s to the ’80s. Learn how to get people to buy stuff they don’t need — and mourn the end of Mad Men — with some of Broadway’s finest writers. Corporate America did not skimp on budgets, either, and you may be surprised by the production values on display.